The Godfather Part II (1974)

“There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer..” – Michael Corleone

Number of Times Seen – 3 ( at least twice on video in the 90’s and March 2013)

Brief Synopsis – The continuing adventures of the Corleone family showing Michael during the 1960’s and Vito as a boy until his rise of power in New York in the 1930’s

My Take on it – As I stated in my review of The Godfather Part I (1972), “for some reason I never really enjoyed the movie, but I think it was because I didn’t really understand it enough or actually pay attention to everything that was going on. Due to these facts, I was reluctant to watch it again.”

Those sentiments also unfortunately apply here. Having re-watched it, I will admit again that I was wrong.

I know a lot of people who think that this is a fine example of a sequel that is better than the original, but I can’t agree with that. This movie was very good, but the story in Part I was more interesting and compelling.  The story of Vito here was told better than the “modern day” story of Michael.  All in all, as a stand alone movie, I would say it was amazing, but having to compare it to the original., it is one notch below.

Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall are great in this film. De Niro deservingly won best supporting actor Oscar for a role which is one of only 6 non-speaking English parts to have ever won an Oscar for acting.

Bottom Line – Great movie. Not as good as the first one, but much better than the third one. Highly recommended

Rating – Oscar Worthy